


dead weight

by cosmicevil



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: LSD, M/M, Top Mirage | Elliott Witt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:47:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24213901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicevil/pseuds/cosmicevil
Summary: “Why is everyone is acting like they’re fucking stoned?”Nox chuckles at him. “Because they are.”
Relationships: Caustic | Alexander Nox/Mirage | Elliott Witt
Comments: 10
Kudos: 80





	dead weight

Elliott should’ve known nothing good can come from Octavio hovering over a bowl of something that’s about to be consumed by the rest of them.

In this case it’s an odd, fruity beverage Bloodhound had concocted. There are bits of what look like oranges, strawberries, but also other fruits that can’t be found on Solace that Elliott doesn’t have a name for. It smells good, tastes a little odd but mostly alright; Elliott had a cup of it pre-Octane. 

“It is what we give to young children on Talos, to placate them when they desire to drink with their elders,” Bloodhound had told him. “I figured I would not take away from your bartending. Besides, our friends are much like children sometimes.” At that, they’d given Elliott a sharp-toothed smile.

The bowl sits on a table rather out in the open, but in an area marked off to civilians. It slowly drains over the course of the evening until there are no more than dregs of fruits and spices at the bottom. 

Elliott’s still slinging drinks to regular patrons when he notices the other legends acting strangely. Loba and Renee sit together in one of the booths, _very_ close. Renee is stroking a hand reverently over Loba’s braids while she preens. In front of them sit two cups, presumably full of Bloodhound’s drink.

He wipes his hands on his rag and goes over to them; his literal only employee, Valentine, is there and can probably handle it. They aren’t too busy tonight, anyway. 

“Hey,” he says to Renee as he approaches. “Are you guys like, good?” 

She looks at him and her pupils are _huge._ Like, ‘just went to the optometrist’ huge. Her cheeks are flushed and her hair flies away from her face in little wisps. The expression she gives Elliott is almost childlike, wide-eyed and exploratory. Her hands leave Loba’s braids and fly to his waist, clutching at him. 

“Woah, hey, it’s alright,” he says, thinking she needs comforting—but she’s smiling now.

“Elliott,” she says, “I _love you._ I love you so much. I love you the most out of everyone I have met so far.” 

Elliott sputters. “I love you too. Are you okay?” He looks at Loba, who doesn’t seem any more present than Renee is. Her pupils are huge, too, but she has a decidedly calmer air about her. She looks at Renee like she’s the only person in the entire building.

Renee nods at him fervently. “I can’t remember ever feeling better. I love you.” 

Elliott gently removes her hands from his waist. “I love you too,” he repeats. “I’m gonna go, uh, talk to someone, okay?” 

Her face falls. “I’ll be right back,” he reassures her. He doubts she’ll remember him saying that, in any case. “Just—hang out with Loba, alright?”

“Okay,” she says, sounding small. Loba takes her hand across the table, and Elliott sneaks off while Renee’s distracted. 

Out of the corner of the eye he catches Natalie leaning up against a far wall. She seems to be doing literally nothing more than that, yet her expression is one of total serenity. Elliott figures, well. She’ll probably be fine.

He spots Nox across the room next, sitting in a booth by himself. Elliott watches as he puts a cigarette out and lights another. Just like at Renee’s table, there’s a cup in front of him. 

They’ve never really talked, him and Nox, but they complement each other well enough in the ring. His decoys are good for leading unsuspecting outlanders into the traps, although most of the legends have grown wise to that tactic by now. 

If Elliott has a tendency to stare at Nox a little too much when they’re squadded, well. That’s for him to know and everyone else to politely ignore. 

He doesn’t know why he approaches Nox now, chalks it up to the fact that the guy seems to know everything about everything. Maybe he has an idea about why everyone is acting so weird tonight. Or something. 

Nox’s eyes lock onto Elliott as soon as he notices him. He blows a cloud of smoke out at him. “Hello,” he says, all low and rumbly. The whole display reminds Elliott of the caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland (massive sex appeal not included.)

Elliott slides into the booth next to him. He plucks the cigarette out of Nox’s fingers, takes a drag, and hands it back. Nox looks on with amusement.

He opens his mouth. Closes it. Then: 

“Why is everyone is acting like they’re fucking stoned?”

Nox chuckles at him. “Because they are.”

Elliott gapes at him. “Wait, seriously? How? More importantly on _what,_ horny juice? I’m pretty sure Ajay is about to screw my employee on top of my bar.” He nods over to where a flustered-looking Valentine is receiving a very enthusiastic kiss on the cheek. 

Nox shakes his head. “Just plain old LSD, I believe.” 

“How do you know?”

“I’ve become accustomed to the feeling.” At Elliott’s surprise, he shrugs. “I synthesize chemicals, Witt. Of course I have consumed psychedelics before.” 

Elliott pretends like this isn’t life-changing information. “Well—the others _haven’t,_ at least not that I know of, what if— what if they all start having bad trips and try to murder each other or something? Who would dose them like that, I don’t—” 

Abruptly, he remembers seeing Octavio hovering over the punch bowl. Jeez, he knew the kid was into drugs, but dosing his friends? 

“Would you care to let me in on whatever you just realized?” Nox takes a sip of his drink and, and _winks_ at him. Elliott feels like he’s the one tripping. 

“Uh, I saw Silva messing with the punch, earlier, I guess he must’ve slipped it in there.” 

“Indeed,” Nox says. “In any case, I’m sure our colleagues will be just fine. The dosage in a single one of these,” Nox lifts the cup with his three-fingered hand, “is rather mild. Although I agree it can be.. most unpleasant if you are not expecting it.” 

He nods over to Renee and Loba, who are in the same position as they were when Elliott left them. “They seem to be doing fine so far. I admit that I do not understand why arousal seems to be the most common reaction but, well. Everyone responds differently, I suppose.”

“Must be all the communal living,” Elliott says. 

“Maybe so.”

He leaves Nox then, to chain smoke and drink the rest of his laced juice, apparently. The bar closes at two, which means the civilians clear out, but the five or so of the legends that fell prey to Octavio’s non consensual dosing remain. Loba and Renee have moved to the bar- well, on top of it, technically, which violates so many fucking health codes it makes Elliott dizzy- sitting together and kicking their feet against the stools.

For all Elliott wants to hem and haw over Renee she seems genuinely happy in a way she rarely ever is. Her forehead is pressed against Loba’s; they’re either whispering so quietly he can’t hear or achieving some psychic transference. Probably both. 

Elliott let Valentine off the hook an hour ago. They’d left with Ajay, promising to take her back to the Syndicate apartment she shares with Octavio. She’d given Elliott a kiss on the cheek and a wiggle of her fingers before leaving.

 _That_ little shit was nowhere to be seen. Elliott actually hadn’t seen him since he’d laced the drink, was probably up in the vents somewhere observing his work. 

Natalie is in the process of being coaxed away from her wall by Anita, who’s shaking her head. “Elliott,” she calls out to him as he passes. “What on earth did you serve her? And everyone else?”

“It wasn’t me!” She gives him an unconvinced look. “Really! Literally what motivation would I have for turning my friends into silly messes?” 

_Silly messes_ , Anita mouths incredulously. “Whatever, Witt. You gonna take care of him?” She nods at Nox, still sitting in his booth. Elliott waves her off. 

“I got it.” Then, to Natalie, “you good?”

She nods. “ _Mais mon papa me manque.”_ Her eyes water. Then Anita’s holding her hand and Natalie’s stumbling away from the wall and, finally, towards the door. Anita rubs a hand over her back.

“I love you both!” He calls out to them as they leave. He receives a middle finger from Anita in response.

He finishes closing tasks around his three remaining friends: wiping down the bar and tables, sweeping the floors, draining the ice. “Pretty boy,” Loba calls out. “Walk us home?” Elliott feels himself blush. He swears to god she’s a witch, or something, she’s got both him _and_ Renee under her spell. 

“Of course,” he says. “Just let me, uh. Finish up.” 

Nox is scribbling something on a napkin when Elliott returns to him. He’d had a coat on, earlier, but he’s long since shrugged it off. His dark undershirt has cigarette burn holes near the sleeves. “I’m gonna escort these ladies home,” Elliott tells him. “You can come too. Well, you have to, kind of, because I’m closing and we’re all going to the same place anyway—" he cuts himself off as Nox stands, gathering his things.

Once he’s managed to herd all three of them towards the door- a feat that proves to be more difficult than he’d expected with the way that Renee and Loba cling on to each other like a pair of monkeys, and how Nox keeps distracting him by standing _really close_ as Elliott fumbles with his keys, so close he can smell that earthy scent from Nox’s plants that always seems to hang around him— 

Well. By the time they actually make it onto the street, Elliott has to take a moment to ground himself. “Okay,” he says to them. “Don’t wander off, it’s only like a ten minute walk so we should get there fine but. Just don’t wander off.” 

Nox chuckles at him. Renee nods somberly.

They manage to make it back to their apartments in one collective piece. Renee drags Loba up to her room with hushed goodnights to Elliott and Nox both. 

Elliott unlocks his door with surprisingly steady hands, and as soon as they’re inside Nox presses him against a wall. “I think you should fuck me,” he says in a rush, and Elliott literally cannot describe in words the visceral jolt of arousal that sentence coming out of _that_ mouth sends through him. 

“Nox, you—you are literally tripping right now, and as much as it pains me to say this, I feel like. Having sex, right now isn’t.. the best idea.”

Nox looks at him with those blown pupils. “If you do not want this,” he says, “I respect your wishes. But if you are only telling yourself that you do not…” At this Nox directs a very pointed glance to where Elliott is clearly hard.

“I just. Don’t want you to regret it.”

“Oh, Elliott,” Nox says. “I am of sound mind enough to decide, and not regret.”

God, Elliott shouldn’t. But. He’s always had a weakness for, for great beasts of men that ask _him_ to.. instead of just assuming that Elliott would be the one to get fucked. It turns him on a great deal more than he’d ever admit aloud. 

“Okay,” he says. “Okay.”

They end up at Elliott’s desk. It’s a plain, metal thing, covered in post-it notes and pencils and other random documents that just _had_ to be on paper instead of electronic, for some reason. 

Nox doesn’t seem to mind the clutter as Elliott fucks him over it, though, in fact seems hardly able to focus on anything at all. 

“ _Oh,_ ” he whines. “Please.”

Elliott fucks into him harder. “I didn’t think,” he says between thrusts, “you’d be such a slut about it.” 

The noise that rips from Nox at the words gives Elliott goosebumps. It rumbles so low he can feel it in his dick. The power trip this whole thing is sending him on is astronomical, ridiculous. His ego’s gonna be off the chart for _weeks_ after this. 

“Such a tough guy,” Elliott says, “so big and scary, and look at you now. Begging for dick, huh? I gotta say, I’m surprised, really.”

“They— usually are,” Nox grits out. “Elliott,” he gasps.

Elliott grabs his hips for leverage. “Yeah?”

“I- I-”

“You what?”

Nox clenches around him and comes in response. Elliott can’t last a single second after that. 

He manages to clean them both up without passing out. Nox watches from the bed as Elliott undresses the rest of the way and turns off the lights. 

“Thank you,” he says. Elliott snorts.

“For some reason it really feels like it should be the other way around.”

“Well,” Nox says. The thought stays unfinished because he falls asleep about two seconds after saying it. 

Elliott doesn’t last much longer after that.

xx

The next day, Octavio stands trial in the common room. Renee glares at him from the couch. Anita stands next to Natalie, with her hands on her hips. Nat looks fine but doesn’t say all too much. Loba and Ajay are absent, likely still asleep, and the rest of the legends who weren’t dosed simply watch the afternoon’s entertainment. 

“You can’t just fucking— _slip drugs into your friends’ drinks_ , Octavio, and don’t lie about it either ‘cause I totally saw you doing it—"

“Elliott, _mi amigo, mi hermano,_ I didn’t slip anything in there! I swear!” 

“So what were you doing over there, then?”

“I was sniffing it! ‘Cause I’m allergic to a lot of the stuff on Talos, I don’t know why, I guess ‘cause Psamanthe’s environment is so different, whatever. Anyway I was just sniffing it to see if I was allergic to anything and I _was,_ so I left it alone! And then I left completely because I had _plans_! With a real friend, not one that I kill all the time.”

Elliott stares at him. 

“Well then who did it?”

“I didn’t know!” Octavio’s nearly bouncing out of his seat. “All I know was that it wasn’t me.” Elliott sighs. 

“Well, sorry I assumed, I guess.” 

Octavio humphs. That’s the end of it, really, but Elliott still feels weird as he takes a seat by Nox. 

“It wasn’t you, was it?” He asks. Nox shakes his head.

“Maybe, at one point, I might have. But I know the dangers of hallucinogens well, and I know that had some of our colleagues taken it they would not have had a favorable experience.”

“Natalie,” Elliott murmurs. Nox inclines his head. 

“Like Ms. Paquette, yes.” 

Elliott frowns. “I don’t like it. Like, acid in the punch bowl is relatively harmless, I guess, but what’s stopping them from doing something more fucked up?”

“I do not know,” Nox says. “I suppose we will just have to wait and see.”

“Yeah,” Elliott replies. “I guess so.”

**Author's Note:**

> it was revenant


End file.
